Loz Speyer's TIME ZONE

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“An ensemble led by a trumpeter/composer who has absorbed the essence of Cuban music and distilled it quite cunningly into an improvisatory context, with no compromise to either culture.”

- Kevin Legendre, Echoes Music Magazine

Time Zone is now touring the new album “Clave Sin Embargo”. The band's third album, released in October 2019, “Clave Sin Embargo” is a deep fusion of Cuban music and Jazz --- soulful, catchy and rhythmically provocative.

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“A fresh perspective on that [Cuban] heritage by way of his London-based ensemble’s taste for raw punky downtown improv via New York, all the way through to free-jazz elements. But the music’s convivial dance sensibility sourced from son, batá and salsa is always apparent... Cohesive and engaging.”

“A vibrant, rhythmically exciting exploration of Cuban music and wider jazz influences… Speyer’s music engages and makes you think – its global themes of movement, difference and change have never been more relevant.”

“Speyer’s sound is forged from a unique personal perspective and his Anglo-Cuban musical hybrid offers something that is both exciting and musically satisfying. His writing is colourful and insightful and the playing by a hand picked sextet is excellent throughout.”

“It’s an album driven by placement – the distinctive variations of the clave rhythms that underpin each track – and displacements – those who seek asylum, who risk sea crossings and transcend walls to gain freedom. But that doesn’t mean the tone is mournful or in any way programmatic. The focus is a celebration of the rhythmic drive and melodic invention that Cuban forms inspire in Loz and his band of post-boppers…”

This unusual crossover music was born more than 15 years ago when trumpeter Loz Speyer was living between London and Santiago de Cuba, studying and performing there with local musicians and delving into the roots of Cuban music – which then began to reappear transformed in his own music for Time Zone. Meanwhile his new family life swung between these two far removed worlds - the collision of which shows through in the compositions, played with passion and commitment by this fine band. Time Zone takes the audience on a journey of the heart.

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"Speyer’s ear for the exultant horn harmonies of traditional Cuban dance music informs a probing crossover composer’s intelligence, in which time signatures are shuffled and idioms overlaid… Nobody writes world music quite like Loz Speyer, and he’s long deserved a bigger stage, and the resources to match."

- John Fordham, the Guardian

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"There is an intriguingly saturnine quality in both the leader's compositions and the band's execution, a sense of hard-edged modernity that has a side-winding thrust reminiscent of Dave Holland's ensemble... An ensemble led by a trumpeter/composer who has absorbed the essence of Cuban music and distilled it quite cunningly into an improvisatory context with no compromise to either culture. Gritty, graceful sounds with a dark-light intensity."